Electoral Finance Bill

In the debate around clause 1, “Title”, and clause 2, “Commencement”, of the Electoral Finance Bill, we see Labour doing its final move to steamroll this legislation through Parliament. It is steamrolling it through with the support of New Zealand First and the Greens, and that will be noted by the voters. I will come back to that point shortly.

I was in the Chamber earlier and Jill Pettis told us the true reason why this legislation is being pushed through the House and steamrolled by the Labour-led Government. Jill Pettis said—and people can go back and look at the Hansard—that lots of people out there at the moment want to write cheques for the National Party, because those people want to see a change of Government. Helen Clark knows that. She knows that lots of people out there want to see a change of Government. The people who want to write cheques for the National Party are the mums and dads in New Zealand, many of whom used to vote for the Labour Party. Many of them used to vote for the Labour Party because the Labour Party used to represent those people.

People are fed up with being told what to do. They are fed up with it. They have enough of Labour telling everybody how they are to live their lives and that is what the bill does. The bill tells us how little we can campaign when using our own money, but it does not stop the Government using taxpayers’ money to campaign at the next election. That is what it is about. Lesley Soper nods her head in agreement, because she knows that at the last election Labour was caught with its sticky, dirty little fingers in the till, with $850,000 stolen from the taxpayer. It was paid back, although reluctantly, but I will give Labour that one little credit. But the money was not paid back by New Zealand First; $50,000-odd was nicked from the taxpayer by New Zealand First. Originally, the New Zealand First members said that they would not pay it back, but now they say that they will pay it back. The cheque is in the mail—yeah, right!

That is what this legislation is about. Sue Moroney knows that, Lesley Soper knows that, and the former Minister who is now to be a vice-chancellor knows that. He was probably part of the team that devised the strategy to rig the system, after Labour members decided they did not have a hope of winning the election if they stuck with the old financial rules. This is an attempt to rig the election result, but, mark my words, it will fail. It will fail.

Progress reported.

Report adopted.

The House adjourned at 5.56 p.m.